Blog: Crucifixus pro nobis

in English 23.7.2016 15:07
| Päivämies-verkkolehti

Long Friday. Sacred Friday. Friday of Sorrow. Great Friday. Good Friday. So many names in different languages for the religious holy day that shrouds churches in black. Each name tells us something about the essence of this day. Crucified on our behalf.

The Bible texts, hymns, and songs of Palm Sunday and the Passion Week have steered my thoughts toward Good Friday and the expectation of Easter morning. It has been possible during my working week to take moments to pause at this message. My memories have gone back to the streets of Jerusalem. Something incomprehensible once happened in the middle of the bustling life of this quick-pulsed city.

The core of Christianity is not amenable to human reason. A man born to a virgin is crucified for the sins of the whole world, rises from the dead, and atones for the sins of you and me, all of us. Only by faith, only by grace, only by the merit of Christ can I receive peace under the all-seeing eyes of God. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: miserere nobis. Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.

Only the faith that I received as a gift can grasp this truth. When I listen to a devotion during an Easter song evening, I pick out a message that clings to my mind: just as you find yourself now. Through all my thoughts, speculations, and questions the stream of forgiveness reaches my heart. Dona nobis pacem. Give us peace.

Let us go up to Jerusalem to witness the Word’s fulfillment. But who can keep watch with our Lord all night and drink from the cup of judgment. (SZ 71). In a Passion Week evening service, I remind myself of one of the most difficult prayers: your will be done. It is impossible to fathom the extent of the agony of Him that had to carry all the sins of the world. Take this cup from me, He pleaded, praying and sweating drops of blood, when even his friends had fallen asleep and were not there to help. And yet His plea ended in consent: yet not my will, but yours be done.

The scale of things is different, but there is something very familiar in that. Each of us has his or her agony of unfulfilled wishes. We just need to learn to live with that and to trust that in the midst of all imperfection we can find a purpose in life and a cause for gratitude. Your will be done in my life.

The message of Good Friday comes out in a comforting song. There is a place of sweet repose prepared for you and me in Jesus’ wounds on Golgotha; there is our victory. … And when the precious drops of blood upon your heart descend, all your temptations flee away; you shall have joy again. (SZ 83)